


Postcards to Haven: Glass Beach

by serendipityxxi



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: California, F/M, Glass Beach, M/M, Multi, Postcards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 05:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13804395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipityxxi/pseuds/serendipityxxi
Summary: Audrey, Nathan and Duke go to Glass Beach near Fort Bragg California





	Postcards to Haven: Glass Beach

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jadzibelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadzibelle/gifts).



> Thanks to Ked and Erin for beta-ing this so many many moons ago :)

Audrey knows something’s up. Duke has been acting squirmy all day. Bright, bright smiles, wide gestures, his best showman’s voice, all of his usual distraction tactics that he’s apparently forgotten Audrey does not fall for. They’ve spent the late spring day hiking the trails of the northern California coast. It’s been warm in the sunshine and chilly in the shadows, but all the brilliant, healthy greens have been worth it. The distant roar of the ocean keeps time like a heartbeat as it has on most of their travels. The trail is close enough to the coast that every now and then she looks up through the trees and sees sunlight sparking off the water.

Duke has kept up a running history of the area, and Audrey wonders exactly how much time he spent near Fort Bragg that he knows the place so well. When they’d planned this leg of the trip, he’d only mentioned that he’d been here before and wouldn’t mind passing through again.

Since they’ve gotten here he’s had story after story of places in the area. He’d promised Nathan seals (since they hit California really, though they’ve yet to see any). He’d gone on a long rant about wildcats in the area. He even had a story about a haunted Toys R Us three hours away. Duke has always been a good story teller--funny and great at building suspense. Audrey doesn’t miss the way he keeps scrubbing his hands through his hair, though,  the way he keeps opening his mouth like he wants to say something and then doesn’t. He’s knee deep in a story about Spanish moss before it finally occurs to Audrey that Duke is stalling. There’s something important here that he’s working his way around to.

She hopes he’ll tell them soon. He’s gotten better lately at using actual words, not just sarcasm . She has too, for that matter. It’s still a daunting task, allowing herself to be vulnerable, but if they want this to work (and they do) they’ve found they must break old habits. Nathan still finds it hard to string together more than four words at a time but he's working on it too. The little line between Duke's eyes that only shows up when he’s stressed has appeared. Audrey longs to rub her thumb across it and erase it, but patience is necessary with Duke sometimes and her gut is telling her now is one of those times. So she’ll give him time to see if he speaks. In the meanwhile, she resolves to just enjoy the day.

Which means tuning back into the story Duke is telling.

“Years ago when the conquistadores,” Duke rolls the Spanish word across his tongue with a wink at Nathan, “were roaming California they happened upon a Meso- American tribe. Things seemed to be going well, trade between the two went amicably enough,” he pauses here so that Nathan’s eyes flick to his, expression expectant. Audrey smiles at the dramatics and Duke continues.

“Until the smallpox set in. Fever raged through the village and they turned on the conquistadores who had brought the sickness. The battle was a bloodbath, axes and arrows against guns,” Duke shakes his head sadly. “The conquistadores took the daughters and wives of the tribe back to their camp. The warriors had been hit hardest by the sickness. The conquistadores went to sleep that night feeling victorious, safe.” Duke pauses again and his smile goes sharp, eyes hard and Audrey finds herself leaning forward in anticipation to hear what’s coming next despite herself.

“No one heard the first sentry fall, or the next. When morning came the whole camp had been slaughtered. And the daughters of the tribe? They had the conquistadores’ heads flung into the trees to warn anyone else what would happen if they were crossed. The Spanish moss that we find in the trees,” Duke points a long arm to the patch that had drawn his attention first, it curls grey and ghostly in the shadows of the leaves, “is said to be their hair and beards, still in the branches, still warning travellers to be fair and wary of their dealings with strangers.”

The air feels heavy, thick with ghosts for a long moment. In the silence Audrey studies a patch of the moss swaying nearby. She’s had enough ghosts. She plucks it and flings it at Nathan.

Nathan bats it away with a shout and the mood is broken. “Parker, there’s ticks in that!” he complains. Duke laughs and helps pick the moss out of Nathan’s hair and then pretends to inspect him for mites til Nathan bats him away.

“C’mon, Nathan, preening is a key way that primates show affection,” Audrey laughs and then the two of them turn on her.

By the time they’re serious again, they all have bits of twigs and leaves in their hair and clothes. Audrey doesn’t miss the way Nathan savors the texture of the leaf he pulls from her hair between his fingers. It’s been months since the Troubles ended but he’s still amazed by the little things. He isn’t taking them for granted and that helps Audrey to remember not to either. When they press on in their hike Audrey takes the time to enjoy the feeling of solid earth under her feet. She knows Nathan must be glad to be back on dry land too. They’ve grown to love the Rouge, the quiet and the freedom of the open ocean, but they’ll never be sailors the way Duke is.

She catches Nathan’s eye behind Duke’s back, raises her brows in question and bounces her gaze to Duke and back, asking silently if Nathan’s noticed Duke’s being weird too. He nods but before they can do more than that Duke’s turned around and Audrey lets it go.

Duke claps Nathan on the shoulder, rocking him forward. “Race you to the fork,” he challenges, already running for it. It's a distraction. They all know it's a distraction. Still Nathan squawks and hustles after him.

Audrey rolls her eyes “You guys are not so secretly still ten years old!” she calls after them.

“You’re only saying that ‘cause you’re losing,” Duke shoots back and Nathan laughs.

Audrey makes an incoherent noise and darts after the two. Sure they’ve got eight inches on her but Audrey Parker is a winner.

She runs.

Her heart pounds in her chest, breath coming in quick pants, determination flooding her system.

Ahead of her Nathan has drawn even with Duke but Duke has his long arms spread out, blocking the path around him. Nathan shoves at him and when Duke shoves back Nathan ducks around Duke’s other side and pulls into the lead. She smiles to see it.

She smiles even more at how good it feels to stretch her legs like this, the burn of her thigh muscles as she pours on the speed. She cuts through the treeline, ankles bending and adapting to the new, rougher terrain. There’s nothing coming after them, nothing to escape, just the joy of racing through sun dappled woods on a warm spring afternoon. Laughter bubbles up and escapes her chest as she leaps back onto the path, two steps behind her squabbling partners. A quick hipcheck that he wasn’t expecting has Duke stumbling, losing precious ground.

“Cheater!” he complains.

Nathan shoots her a grin over his shoulder.

“Sorry to do this, Nathan,” she lies as she sticks her foot out and catches his ankle.

He trips, and before he can recover Audrey is past and to the Y fork first with a whoop of triumph! Duke hurtles up behind her with his own yell. His warm hands snatch her around the waist and he spins her around in celebration, her back pressed to his chest, his heartbeat thudding against hers, the world a whirl of green and gold light as they spin. When Duke sets her down Audrey cannot help but kiss him, tasting the laughter on his lips.

Nathan grumbles about treachery and betrayal as he joins them, but his eyes are bright with laughter and his body relaxed, muscles at ease from the stretch. Audrey threads her fingers through his and tugs him closer to them. His hands are warm and open and maybe she’s not the only thing he can feel anymore but the squeeze he gives her reminds her he’s glad he can feel her anyway.  When they start to walk again Duke reaches out and grasps her free hand, linking all three of them. Audrey glances up and meets his gaze. His smile is slow and sweet and Audrey feels her heart turn over in her chest.

She feels a little ridiculous but a lot content walking with her boys in the dappled sunshine of a lazy afternoon.

The trail takes them right down to the coast, the sunlight almost blinding as the path emerges from the trees. It isn’t long after that when Duke finally spots a pod of seals. He claps Nathan on the shoulder, pointing them out and Nathan’s whole face lights up, blue eyes soft and full of awe on unashamed display. There have been more than a few moments like that on this trip they’ve taken, but Audrey will never stop appreciating a Nathan who feels safe enough to let such raw emotions show on his face.

“If you swim out to pet them, Nathan, I won’t be responsible for rescuing you,” she teases.

Nathan chuckles and blushes and Duke throws his arm around his shoulders, laughing too. “It wouldn’t end well buddy,” he says apologetically.

“Know that,” Nathan gripes, elbowing Duke in the ribs, but it is good-natured and gentle.

Audrey smiles at her boys as they stand together--Duke in his white Henley, hair falling out of his ponytail and Nathan in his grey t shirt, tanned and relaxed from their trip. They look good together, comfortable, pressed hip to hip with Duke’s arm slung possessively around Nathan’s shoulders.  They’ve always moved in each other’s space, even when Nathan’s Trouble was turned on and they didn’t trust each other they never were able to stay more than arm’s length away from each other. But now, they’re like magnets, Duke musses Nathan’s hair, Nathan elbows Duke, they find flimsier and flimsier excuses to touch each other now that they can. Audrey doesn’t know when they’re going to realize they don’t actually need excuses, but she enjoys the playful wrestling and ridiculously bad flirting so she’s letting them come to it in their own time.

They stand for a long time watching the seals and their pups sunning on the rocks out in the sparkling blue Pacific. Nathan slips his arm around Duke’s waist in return, holding onto his hip, offering the quiet support he’s so good at. They don’t know what’s bothering Duke but in the language of Nathan-and-Duke Nathan’s telling him silently that he’s there. 

Before they leave, Nathan pulls his camera from a pocket of his cargo shorts and snaps a picture of the three of them with the water in the background.

They’re almost back to the car when Duke stops them. “I… have one last spot if you two aren’t too tired,” he offers, looking at them through his lashes almost shyly.

Nathan, who had looked done in a moment before, straightens his shoulders and rallies.

Audrey sees Duke’s eyes go soft as he registers the shift in Nathan’s posture and she smiles.

“Where is it?” Nathan asks.

 Audrey will never get tired of the way Nathan and Duke have mended their relationship. Sure they complain and bicker and bitch at each other but then there are moments like these where Nathan will do something just because it’s Duke who’s doing the asking. It makesher chest feel tight, full, to watch them be gentle with each other.

 “Not too far from here,” is Duke’s only answer today.

In the great before, Nathan might have complained at the non-answer. Today he just nods and gets into the car.

Audrey locks eyes with him in the rearview mirror and raises her eyebrows. Nathan gives her a tiny shrug back. He doesn't know what's up either. Duke gives a snort of disgust at the two of them and turns the key in the ignition.

Audrey has the feeling they are finally getting to the heart of their trip to Fort Bragg.

 

Long rays of warm, whiskey-colored light fall between the houses as they drive down a perfectly normal, homey street. Normal families in those houses cook and watch TV, argue and play, as day slowly gives way to evening. Audrey takes a deep breath of the sea air through the window and revels in the freedom that sings in her blood. It has taken weeks and weeks for it to all settle in. The Troubles are over. She is no longer responsible for the weight of the world and that isn’t a bad thing. It doesn’t mean she’s useless now; it means she gets to be as normal as all these people. It means she gets to live. 

They park at the end of the street before a field of tall beach grass and yellow wildflowers that reminds Audrey of Scottish moors full of heather. The green goes right up to the end of the world, the blue sky streaked with white clouds spread wide above it and the earth dropping away into an ocean gone blue black in the sunset.

Through those wildflowers is the path that will lead them down to the beach. Audrey can hear the boom and crash of the waves. Over the scent of the flowers is the smell of salt. In Haven, on the Rouge, wherever they’ve gone it’s been with her. She’s cried salty tears, kissed briny sweat from her boys’ bodies; it is a part of the Audrey Parker she’s made herself. It smells a lot like home.

The stairs are steep. There’s a soft breeze setting the tall reeds dancing and flinging her hair into her face as she picks her way down. Duke and Nathan are way ahead, bounding down like mountain goats. Audrey doesn’t mind though. She’s enjoying taking her time.

When they get to the bottom, they find a beach that is mostly gravel. The world here is gilded golden in the light of the setting sun. The waves come in on a rush of bubbles and flow back out to crash along the breakwater before swirling back in. Their feet crunch cheerfully on the rock as they traipse along the shore. Audrey doesn’t think this is Duke’s spot. She isn’t wrong.

When Audrey bends to pick up a pretty piece of deep blue sea glass, Duke stops her with a hand on her wrist.

“Leave it,” he says, “there’s more up ahead.”

 Audrey is curious now, she reaches out and twines her sandy fingers with his.

 “Where are we going?”

 Duke only tugs her onwards. “A place I found once, that I think you might like.”

 "When did you find it?” Nathan asks.

 Duke makes a face but answers: “About two years after I left Haven on the Rouge. Was out this way doing some work and got stuck in Fort Bragg for repairs. Was here for five months, earning enough to get back in the water.”

 “What were you doing to earn enough money?” Audrey asks idly swinging their hands.

 Duke drops her hand and walks backward to be able to look at both of them, head cocked to the side, the wind teasing the ends of his hair. “I,” he holds up a finger and pauses here, “was a rhythmically-talented, clothing- deprived entertainer of non-minors.” he says primly.

 Audrey’s brow furrows. Nathan repeats the answer silently. He hasn’t gotten to the end before Audrey starts chuckling.

“This… rhythmic talent of yours wasn’t perhaps showcased through dancing, was it?” she asks, eyes sparkling with mirth.

Duke gives her his best ‘who me? I don’t know’ shrug, but turns around to watch where he’s going.

“Kind of dancing people do with a pole and tear-away pants?” Nathan demands, looking scandalized.

Audrey bursts into laughter.

 “Wait, wait, why have I never heard of this before? Better question--why have I not been given a demonstration?” she demands.

 Duke rolls his eyes but shimmies his hips for them as he walks, making Audrey chuckle harder. “I was twenty-four and broke,” he calls back to them, “you have any idea how much money you can make stripping?”

 “Betting you can tell us,” Nathan offers with a smirk in his voice.

 Duke flips him off but slows his steps so they can catch up. Audrey slaps his ass and calls him ‘hot stuff’ when she gets close enough. Duke shakes his head but wraps his arm around her shoulders and tugs her in tight to his side. Audrey tucks her hand in the back pocket of his shorts as they walk. His torso is warm in the swiftly cooling evening air, a long solid line of muscle to press herself against.

 The clouds shift just as they round a corner of the base of the cliffs and the view suddenly steals Audrey’s breath. Laid out ahead of them is a beach that glitters and sparkles like a mile of gemstones. It looks like something out of a fairy tale, a mermaid’s treasure trove, the shore bedecked in a swath of sea glass that glows with all the colors of the rainbow. She’s so enthralled that at first she doesn’t even realize that she’s walking on alone

Audrey turns back and finds Duke has stopped at just where they rounded the corner. He’s sinking onto a boulder, hands clenched into fists. Nathan is already walking back toward him, a tall, lanky silhouette in the evening light. He puts a hand on Duke’s cheek, then his shoulder, shakes him gently in the way that they have that speaks of affection in muted tones. Duke pats Nathan’s hand awkwardly, holds his other out to Audrey who takes it. She settles next to him on one side, Nathan on the other, it reminds her of the seals earlier in the day. They are Duke’s pod, his pack. Audrey’s eyes sweep across the sparkling sand, drinking in the sight as she waits for Duke to speak.

 “It…” Duke hesitates, struggles with himself probably to not give them a flip remark. Instead he tells the story in a carefully toneless way, all showmanship gone. “It’s called Glass Beach. For about sixty years, starting back at the turn of the century, the city used this place as a dumping ground. They’d toss all their garbage over the edge of the cliffs there,” Duke pointed back up the stairs they’d just clambered down. “and they left it to rot. Everything from household trash to old appliances, even cars. Every now and then they’d set fire to the pile to make more room so they could throw more garbage down here. “

 Audrey glances around the pretty little cove with its yellow wildflowers clinging fearlessly to the rough sides of the cliffs, everything painted pink and gold in the setting sun.

 “Near the end of the sixties when environmentalism was getting trendy, they started cleaning up the place, got people down here to haul it all up and everything that was worth something - even the old metal that hadn’t rusted to pieces was sold for scrap. But they had no use for the glass from all those cars and plates and windows, it was broken, worthless, _trash_.” Duke’s swears the last three words, uncharacteristic anger coloring his tone. He has to clear his throat before he continues, “So it got battered, broken even more, tumbled and scraped until it became something else. “

Audrey turns and catches Duke’s hands between her own and tugs him around to face her.

She gets it.

“The sea took what they thought was trash and transformed it, made it good and strong and beautiful,” she agrees, squeezing his cold fingers between her own.

“Worth something,” Nathan agrees softly, stroking his thumb along the stiff line of Duke’s neck.

“Yeah,” Duke answers shakily,

Duke lets his head drop, lets his eyes fall closed and they sit there in the sunset.

 Audrey can see how a boy who had been tossed away by his parents, called worthless and worse by a town could empathize with a beach full of broken glass. What was dangerous and sharp became something else because of everything it went through, still rough but the edges not so sharp, colorful and beautiful, unique. She thinks she can see how another boy, who’d gone through his own tumbles, berated and badgered, if maybe not battered in the same way, can empathize with a beach full of broken glass too. And as for Audrey… she knows what it feels like to be discarded when she no longer had a use, what it is like to be forged and made new through the blows she took… to feel like she is drowning and then to be tossed upon the shore.

When Duke opens his eyes again they are golden in the setting light of the sun, so far away from Troubled black.

“They say a thousand people come here every day and most of them steal pieces of the glass to take home with them. “

“Trash turned to treasure,” Nathan says, more than a hint of smug pride in his voice.

 Duke gives a sharp laugh and nods. “Used to be these three coves here were just covered in the stuff, but tourists and time… Now the town wants to fine people for taking the glass away with them. Now it’s valuable,” he says snidely.

 Audrey gives a dark chuckle of her own. “I hope they take it all,” she tells him fiercely.

 Duke kisses the side of her head in thanks. “Me too,” he says. “Me too.”

 

Before they leave Duke has Audrey pick up three matching pieces of glass. She has to hunt to find a third cobalt blue piece, but they find it. When they get back to the Rouge a few days later, Duke disappears for an hour or two and when he comes back he has wrapped silver wire around that blue sea glass, making a pendant to go on a necklace, and earrings to match. Audrey wears them often.

 


End file.
